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A Manitoba jailhouse drug conspiracy case has concluded with prosecutors securing convictions against several key players, including an aboriginal elder working at Headingley Correctional Centre.

It’s a case that sheds light on the prison dope-trafficking underworld, where huge profits are the reward for inmates bold enough to brave the risks involved.

Thomas Hall, 27, was convicted Friday of conspiring to traffic marijuana into Headingley jail while housed as an inmate there in November 2010.

Following a five-day trial, Judge Marvin Garfinkel found Hall was involved in a plot to smuggle 79.62 grams of marijuana into the jail with the assistance of others, including an aboriginal elder collared by RCMP in possession of the drugs and cash.

“This was a common design,” said Garfinkel of the conspiracy. “All of the evidence ... convinced me that Mr. Hall was involved in this plan to bring marijuana into Headingley.”

Hall pleaded not guilty, claiming the Crown’s case was weak and didn’t link him to the plot, which was initially uncovered by a jail security official who was monitoring an unrelated inmate’s telephone calls to try to confirm his gang ties.

The aboriginal elder, David McPherson, 46, pleaded guilty early last week to a drug-trafficking charge and will be sentenced at a later date. Another Headingley inmate at the time, Denee Lambert, has pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy. Two other civilians remain before the courts.

While the amount of seized weed might seem like small potatoes, a Canadian prison security expert testified that in jail it was a “substantial quantity” that had a major cash value in jail of $16,000 or more.

“The trafficker is looking to maximize his profit,” said Tim van der Hoek, a security intelligence officer with the Correctional Service of Canada.

The drugs would likely have be turned into so-called ‘pin joints’ in jail, with a single gram making up to 20 of them, he testified. They are essentially just a sprinkling of weed rolled up a tiny bit of whatever paper’s around.

Based on 2011 intelligence, a single such joint would sell for anywhere between $10 and $20 inside western Canadian jails, he said.

Opportunities to smoke up in jail are few and far between, said van der Hoek.

Inmates must be cautious they don’t get too stoned and raise suspicions of correctional officers or other prison workers.

“They want to ensure they’re not in a state of impairment,” van der Hoek told court. “The more you do it, the higher the likelihood you’re going to be detected.”

Getting high behind bars is a dangerous venture, he suggested: inmates who have drugs of any kind must be constantly wary of drawing the attention of other inmates who could snitch them out or use violence to snatch the marijuana for themselves.

Typically, inmates smoke up when outside in an exercise yard. When inside, they’ll light air fresheners on fire to mask the skunk smell of weed or use tubes to blow smoke into a toilet. Sometimes inmates burn ceremonial sweetgrass and then smoke up because the plant smells somewhat similar.

Van der Hoek disclosed how jailhouse dealers are forced to devise clever methods to get paid for their drugs, as currency in jail is considered contraband.

Most typically, said van der Hoek, purchases are negotiated on the outside, with inmates being given a number, say ‘11.’ A trafficker will set up a bank account and a friend or relative of the purchaser will deposit the money, plus 11 cents to signify whose order it was, van der Hoek told court.

Other methods include bartering drugs for canteen items or for services, including sexual favours.

He said despite concerted efforts by prison officials to keep drugs and contraband out, devious inmates are always devising ways to bring them in. Illegal drugs pose a major safety risk to inmates and staff in jails, he said.

DRUG USE IN JAILS, BY THE NUMBERS

80 — percentage of inmates coming into custody with a substance abuse problem

$10 to $20 — the price if a single “pin joint” in Western Canada’s jails

20 — pin joints made per gram

$200 to $400 — cash from sale of 20 pin joints

$16,000 to $32,000 — trafficker’s take for 80 grams of weed

1 gram — what the average weed user can get away with smoking in jail a day

2 — work days needed in Manitoba jails to earn enough to pay for a single pin joint (at $4.70/day)

3,500 — jail work days a Manitoba inmate would need to pay for 80 grams of marijuana